Joy Hewett: Harming N.C. retirees

The legislature’s appropriations bill for 2016 needs to give a substantial cost of living adjustment for retirees. Sen. Phil Burger and House Speaker Tim Moore are leading their Republican majority to ignore the needs of the elderly who served the state for decades. Using retirees’ hard-earned dollars to fund private school vouchers and too many charter schools hurts our education system.

I don’t mind tax dollars going to help public education be as good as it was when we went to school decades ago, but now they are harming our educational system while taxing seniors more and not adjusting for higher cost of living.

House Bill 998, effective Jan.1, 2014, increased the taxes retirees must pay for their pensions, and eliminating the tax exemption placed more burden for the state’s revenue on elderly women and men. The way this new N.C. tax system calculates taxes on senior and elderly pensioners, unlike the way the federal government does, unfairly targets those who have served society the longest and may have less income to spare.

The state’s Republican tax system punishes older retired women the worst because they earned less while working and now get less when they need every dollar.

This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Joy Hewett: Harming N.C. retirees."